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What will it take for consumers to take out their mobile wallets?

Written by Guest contributor

MarketingCharts staff

Through a special arrangement, presented here for discussion is a summary of articles from MarketingCharts, which provides up-to-the-minute data and research to marketers

Most adults in the U.S. believe that mobile wallets will replace physical ones by 2025, per new research from Synchrony Financial, but data from InfoScout indicates that adoption of mobile wallets remains quite modest. So, what could drive more use of mobile wallets?

In surveying 1,000 U.S. smartphone owners, Vibes discovered the biggest driver to trying mobile wallets is getting better promotions or offers. Not much has changed as a 2015 survey from comScore on behalf of UPS found finding and redeeming coupons to be the main mobile wallet driver.

But mobile wallets are about more than just deals. Coming in a close second in the Vibes survey are the organizational benefits provided. In other words, many would be willing to try out a mobile wallet if it would make their life easier by organizing things such as offers/coupons, loyalty cards and airline boarding passes. The survey separately found strong interest (69 percent) in saving loyalty cards to a phone.

The survey also found personalization is even more important than in previous years. Eighty-seven percent indicated they would save personalized mobile wallet content compared to 66 percent in the “2017 Mobile Consumer Report.”

Meanwhile, other benefits — such as enhancing experiences with favorite brands, receiving important informational updates and getting personalized offers — aren’t quite as strong in terms of motivating mobile wallet usage.

There is one key detractor above all else, though: security concerns. Fully 59 percent of respondents said that security concerns are a barrier to using a mobile wallet. This ranked far ahead of other hindrances, including the lack of the payment option at frequented stores (19 percent) and a lack of knowledge about how to access mobile wallets (12 percent).

Research has shown that the most common way of purchasing items or services via a mobile phone is by typing credit or debit card details into a mobile website. Trust may have had a role in that result. When asked which processing method they trusted the most when using a credit or debit card, almost twice as many mobile users pointed to typing details into mobile websites as did storing the details in an app.

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